The Deer Of Providencia Summary

“The Deer of Providencia”, a short story by Annie Dillard presents suffering in multiple ways; it is used through nature and violence. In the short story, four North Americans, one woman and three men, visited a village where they witnessed a deer suffering. It did not bother any of them that they were observing a deer suffer right in front of their eyes. The men of the group thought it was bizarre that the girl of the group was not bothered by the torturing. As their wives would have done anything to save the deer. The woman then proceeds to talk about how she wakes up every morning to see a picture of a two time burn victim in her mirror. She talks about how life has such suffering and you always question, “why me”? In “The Deer of Providencia”,

Dillard begins by examining the deer hanging in the forest. “Trying to paw itself free of the rope, the deer had scratched its own neck with its hooves. The raw underside of its neck showed red striped and some bruises bleeding inside the muscles” Dillard states. The story becomes extremely gruesome and violent as Dillard goes on to create a vivid image in your mind of the deer suffering and dying. This part of the story is two paragraphs long, which means it is a stand out part of the short story and must be significant. It also helps readers evaluate the situation and how they would feel about the event. The men later go on to talk about how Dillard looked while watching the suffering; they said she looked detached, calm, or focused. This also connects to how Dillard is feeling when she looks at the picture of the burn victim every morning. According to Varma and Nancy, the scene in which no one wants to read, the deer suffering, can be used to prove that “the image of the onlookers fascinated by the deer exemplifies the casual sympathy Dillard condemns so forcefully”. Dillard forcefully feels sympathy for the burnt man and she makes herself look at him each morning. This is one representation of suffering throughout the

She feels the casual sympathy that she feels she needs to have and then also has to force herself to feel something. In order to feel any pain towards this man, she has to look at his burnt face each morning and read the horrific story on her mirror. I believe she is trying to make herself feel sympathy like everyone else, or like a woman should feel in this century. All though she is trying to gain sympathy, she is technically using someone else’s loss for her own gain. There is something mentally wrong with Dillard in this story and it is brought out when you realize she does not feel any sympathy towards neither the deer nor the burn victim. You could go two ways with this part of the story as worded by Robbins “is this an offensive affectation or a holy devotion”? Having to devote every morning to rereading a burn victims story and relooking at his pictures could be considered maniac, but could also be considered devoting your time to better yourself and remember the suffering that happens in